Rep Joe Courtney to hold Sept 2 Town Hall in Montville, CT

My Congressman from the Second District in CT has informed me of his intentions to FINALLY hold an in-person town hall.
Bring your cameras.

He writes:
"I am writing to you in response to your previous interest in health care system reform. In a continued effort to hear the views of my constituents, I will host a public Town Hall forum on Wednesday, September 2 at 6:30 PM to discuss the critical issue of health insurance reform.

The forum, which is open to all Second District residents, will be held at
Montville High School
800 Old Colchester Road
Oakdale."

One day preview of "The Butterfly Circus"

Go to Doorpost Films to view this preview of an amazing short film which will challenge your views of what a circus can be.

The Great Kennedy and why Teddy wasn't

Read Ross Douthat's excellent Op-ED in the NYTimes about the one difference which separated the Catholic liberalism of the famous siblings.
This one difference which made one into a Catholic hero meriting accolades from the Pope at her death, and the other who has elicted little than perfunctory remarks and prayers from the Vatican.
"What separated them was abortion.
Along with her husband, Sargent Shriver, Eunice belonged to America’s dwindling population of outspoken pro-life liberals. Like her church, she saw a continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life.
Her brother took a different path. Not at first: In 1971, in a letter to a voter that abortion opponents would have many opportunities to quote, he declared that “wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized — the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.” But like many other Catholic liberals, from Joseph Biden to Dennis Kucinich, he moved leftward with his party, becoming a down-the-line supporter of abortion rights, with a voting record that brooked no compromise on the issue."
Why did Teddy break ranks with his Church? Possibly because of his presidential ambitions. Judie Brown was on Catholic Radio International saying that Teddy signed on to the Human Life Amendment in 1974. By 1980 when he ran for the Democratic nomination for president, he had changed his tune on abortion.
He lost on both accounts. May God have mercy on him.
Read the entire Op-Ed here.

Kennedy the Catholic; how far he strayed

from WI Catholic and Christus Rex
Long-time Catholic League member Tom Dennelly wrote to Senator Edward Kennedy in 1971 expressing his views on abortion (this was a year-and-a-half before Roe v. Wade). In a letter dated August 3, 1971, Senator Kennedy replied; excerpts appear below. :
"While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized—the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old.
"On the question of the individual's freedom of choice there are easily available birth control methods and information which women may employ to prevent or postpone pregnancy. But once life has begun, no matter at what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire.
"When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception."
Catholic League president William Donohue opined as follows:
"The same Ted Kennedy who once championed the rights of the unborn now champions the right of a doctor to jam a scissor into the skull of an infant who is 80-percent born. Sadly for him, history will look back at this era and recognize that he didn't care enough about human beings to take responsibility for children from the very moment of conception."
Copyright © 1997-2009 by Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.*Material from this website may be reprinted and disseminated with accompanying attribution.

Judie Brown on Sen Ed Kennedy

If you are tired of the fawning mainstream media, listen to Catholic Radio International's "The Heart of the Matter" show with Jeff Gardner as he interviews American Life League's founder Judie Brown on the significance of Sen Ed Kennedy.

Robert Schindler, pro-life hero has gone to Jesus

A message about the passing of Robert Schindler, who fought bravely for Terri Schindler Schiavo's life. He has gone home to his reward, and I know Terri will be the first to embrace him.
"Well done, good and faithful servant" will be the words he hears from Our Lord.
No 24 hour news coverage here, yet he certainly was in the news while his son-in-law was starving his daughter to death.
Keep his legacy alive. Fight the euthanasia in health care.



Dear LifeNews.com Readers,
It is with tremendous sadness that we reported this weekend on the passing of Robert Schindler, the father of Terri Schiavo.
From those who have experienced it, it is always a horrendous ordeal to outlive your children, but even worse when your daughter's life is taken away from you and your family by someone whose motivations are entirely different.
At the same time as we mourned the sadness of losing Terri to a tremendously painful starvation and euthanasia death, we pro-life people recognized -- perhaps none moreso than Bob Schindler and the rest of his family -- that Terri's death was an opportunity God put in our laps.
With the starting of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, Bob and his family sounded the alarm about how Terri's abhorrent treatment was but the tip of the iceberg. So many disabled, elderly and other people who need medical care and treatment are having it deprived them from doctors, hospitals, the government and even the ones they love.
Sadly, the situation is getting worse before it gets better.
The plight of Terri Schiavo has been followed by more states and more nations legalizing assisted suicide.
The health care bills in Congress push a quality of life ethic that tells patients the amount and type of medical care they should receive is based upon some arbitrary government standard and that some lives are not as worth living as others.
In HR 3200, doctors are given financial incentives to potentially push a reduced level of medical care or to suggest that grandma and grandpa may be better off to withdraw food and water or sign a DNR order prematurely.
Worse, in states like Oregon and Washington, our own government, in this government-run health care plan, would pay for physicians to suggest that patients consider the option of assisted suicide.
Our veterans, who have given so much for the freedom and liberties we enjoy every day, are seeing their own government send them materials telling them they may need to consider whether they are a burden on others. Here the heroes of America, who bore the burdens so many of us have never had to bear, are told they should consider sacrificing their own lives after they already sacrificed so much.
In such a short time since Bob Schindler and Mary and Bobby and Suzanne faced the nightmare of losing their daughter and sister to an estranged husband with his own agenda, the euthanasia movement is more forcefully pushing its agenda on us.
Will we push back? Will we fight against these notions that our bravest and most cherished people should get out of the way so we don't have to bear their burdens?
The Bible calls on people to bear each others burdens. The Schindler family did just for so many people that after Terri died. Now, it is our turn.
When it comes to the Schindlers, will you take time to pray for them as they mourn and grieve the loss of a loving father and husband?
When it comes to the disabled, the elderly, the sick and those who need a little extra help, will you support them? Please consider reading the LifeNews.com story about Robert and send a check to the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation to encourage their work to protect other Terris.
And if you have a little extra, please consider supporting LifeNews.com.
We will always cover pro-life issues on abortion, but we will never tire of joining our friends in the Schindler family by lighting a candle with them to shine a light on the plight of medically vulnerable people.
LifeNews.com will continue joining the Schindlers in taking the lead to highlight the growing culture of death that pushes euthanasia and assisted suicide. We will continue to keep you informed about what you can do to protect your family, yourself and others. We will battle back when that slippery slope gets slicker and the sanctity of human life is devalued further.
On behalf of LifeNews.com, we thank the Schindler family.
We know Bob and Terri are enjoying a warm embrace in Heaven. And we know they are looking down on us and asking every pro-life person to do just a little more to let the world know that life should be cherished, from the little baby before birth to the little lady near death.
I hope you'll join us in keeping up that fight. Enjoy the story about Bob Schindler and please consider a donation to help them and help us.
Steven Ertelt, Editor Life News

This photo of Suzanne Schindler Vitadamo and Brother Paul O'Donnell was taken at the Hyatt prolife confernce at the March for Life 2008. They carry on Terri's legacy by helping people whose loved ones are in similar situations.

Legacy of Teddy Kennedy

Here is the true story of how Teddy Kennedy blocked a referendum on homosexual marriage in Massachusetts. So much for the populist senator. From the Mass Resistance website.

Major homosexual activist reveals Ted Kennedy's crucial role in defeating Marriage Amendment in Massachusetts Legislature -- people's stopping right to vote on it.
Kennedy poster published in homo-sexual newspaper this week.
Sen. Ted Kennedy was the secret critical force in the background that caused the Massachusetts Legislature to deny the people the right to vote on the Marriage Amendment, it was revealed this week. Less than 48 hours after Kennedy's passing, the homosexual newspaper Bay Windows published an article by Marc Solomon, who at that time ran MassEquality, the main homosexual lobby group trying to stop the amendment. Ted Kennedy personally pressured enough conservative Democrats (and even "libertarian-leaning" Republicans) who the homosexual lobby was targeting, to change their votes on that the measure to allow a public vote would be defeated. Kennedy also worked on the overall strategy to defeat it. Without Kennedy's involvement, it would likely not have been defeated the Legislature -- and the people would have been able to vote.

Here's what Solomon told Bay Windows:
Our cause was lining up the votes to defeat an anti-gay constitutional amendment that would strip same-sex couples of the right to marry. A final vote was scheduled for July 14, 2007. Our opponents needed the votes of only 25 percent of the legislature to advance a citizen-led amendment to the ballot. We had lined up two-thirds of the legislature through fieldwork, lobbying, media, literally everything we could think of. But getting those last 15 legislators-those conservative Democrats from working class Massachusetts communities and a few libertarian-leaning Republicans-was very tough. We needed all hands on deck to keep a Massachusetts version of Proposition 8 off the ballot. We needed Ted Kennedy. "Could you get me a list of your targets?" one of Kennedy's key staffers finally asked me. "Don't tell anyone I'm asking you for this," he said. He meant it, and I didn't. A few days later, as I was doing my rounds in the State House, a bewildered conservative legislator stopped me. "You'll never guess who left me a message about gay marriage," he said. "Ted Kennedy." And then I started to hear similar refrains again and again. We'd get word that he'd spoken to the Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President, the chair of the Democratic Party, asking for updates, strategizing, figuring out exactly what he could do and how he could be most helpful. In the end, on that July 14, we won. We won what many thought was an impossible victory, by a vote of 151 - 45, keeping our opponents just below the 25 percent threshold. We shocked our opponents. They were sure they had the votes. Just the kind of come-from-behind, unexpected victory for the little guy that Kennedy relished so much. Later that day, after rallies, celebrations, and parties, I sat down at my desk and listened to voice messages of congratulations, one after the next. One moved me to my core. "Marc, Ted Kennedy calling from Washington, DC. Congratulations on what you did today. What you accomplished for the people of Massachusetts is tremendous. Good work, my friend."Read the entire article here

Catholics against Obamacare

I am now blogging with Jean Heiman of Catholic Fire against Obamacare, go and visit our blog and decide if you. . .
Are You a Catholic Against Obama Care?

Kennedy was no friend of Rome

Mother Rose Kennedy is reported to have dreamed that Edward would become a priest. His was a life of privilege and opportunity recklessly squandered. Even Time-CNN recognizes the reason Kennedy alienated himself from the Catholic Church.

"Edward Kennedy, it can be said, was not cut out for the priestly life. His first marriage, to former model Virginia Joan Bennett, ended in divorce in 1982, with the marriage annulled by the Roman Rota more than a decade later. And there are the infamous episodes in his life that showed a man not quite in control of his demons.l(understatement of the year; Chappaquiddick drowning death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Kennedy Smith rape trial, public reputation for drunkenness) But ultimately, beyond his personal travails, Kennedy's relationship with the Church hierarchy was destined for conflict because of politics. The Senator became both the face and the engine of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that has long led the battle for abortion rights, stem-cell research and gay marriage, all of which Catholic doctrine strictly forbids."

Truer words were never spoken; Kennedy became the antithesis of the Catholic politician, fighting against the most central beliefs of the Church. The sad thing is, with his last name, he didn't have to compromise himself the way he did to stay in office. He could have remained true to the Church; after all he lived in one of the most Catholic states in the nation.
John Henry Westen remembers his abortion legacy and publicly wonders if his funeral will cause grave scandal to the Church.
"What example will this give to Catholics and the rest of the world looking in? It will surely belie the Catholic teachings on the sanctity of life and sexuality. "Surely," they will say, "if one of the most vociferous proponents of abortion and homosexuality in politics is so feted in the Church, the Church cannot possibly regard abortion as murder." Would anyone so honor one who so advocated what the church officially considers an "unspeakable crime"?

He of course, is referring to the fact that President Obama will be delivering the eulogy. Will this be another Notre Dame scandal?
HT Life Site News.

Read the entire story at Time.com.


Fr Raymond de Souza talks about missed opportunities here at NC Register blog.
"The public legacy of the Senate’s greatest liberal and the last lion of his pride is a matter for public judgment. During his 47 years in the Senate, he was the most prominent Catholic Democrat in America. Many critics considered him a better Democrat than Catholic. Yet the tragedy of Ted Kennedy is that had he been more faithful to the public implications of his Catholicism, he may have been a more successful leader of the Democratic Party. The culture wars have not been electorally kind to the Democratic Party, and there is perhaps no person more responsible for the culture wars than Ted Kennedy himself."
Strong words but necessary. We can never imagine what the Kennedy name could have done to advance the Culture of Life in America because this flawed man let his youthful sins drag his entire adult career into the pits of the Culture of Death. That's how the Enemy works; he gets a good person to do something bad (ie leave a young woman to drown to cover your drunken mistake) then he whispers in your ear for the rest of your life, "well you did that, this isn't any worse" about the next worse sin, and the next and the next. Before you know it you have a reputation as a drunk, womanizing extremely liberal senator who is undefeatable in the Senate.
It's a long, slippery slope with Satan pushing you all the way down.
Had Teddy made a heartfelt confession instead of listening to advisers, he might have turned his life around then. Had he served time in jail like any other citizen would for Chappaquiddick, he might have had true repentance. But he got away with murder and then became complicit in the murders of millions of unborn children.
If you have power, you must be extraordinarily vigilant to remain pure and blameless, precisely because you are a target of the enemy who seeks to destroy the earth with our help.

May God have mercy on Edward Kennedy for letting his weakness drag him down to cooperating with evil in his Senate career.

Catholic Health Association backs away from Obamacare

This is great news, last week Sr Carol Keehan, the director of Catholic Health Association defended their support of Obamacare on EWTN's "The World Over" despite vigorous attacks from both Judie Brown and Ray Arroyo, over the abortion connection of the bill. She said that CHA had to 'participate in dialogue' with the Obama Administration. Once the bill was law, however, anyone with a brain knows the time of dialog with zealots like Ezekiel Emmanuel would be over.

Now they apppear to be backing out of their support of this bill over abortion, just as several bishops are speaking out against the health care bill.
Pro-life pressure from within the Catholic Church seems to have been responsible for the change. Keep the pressure on!
HT Life News

Bishop Martino to retire for health reasons

This is a great loss for Scranton. I'll bet Senator Casey is vastly relieved; he thinks that there will be no more Bishop to hold his feet to the fire about abortion, however, not so fast; Cardinal Rigali will be incharge of the diocese until a replacement is named. Meanwhile let's pray for a miraculous healing for Bishop Martino; he is sorely needed in our Church.
Bishop Matino was a brave, decisive shepherd who was uncompromising defender of life issues. We will all miss him.
"I'm very saddened by this news and urge readers to pray for his health. Bishop Martino is a real firebrand who has been passionately defending the principles of our Catholic faith in his diocese, as previous AmP posts detail."

Read the entire story at American Papist.

Glenn Beck is championing the rights of the disabled

He's doing it by giving the American public a long-overdue history lesson on eugenics, and it's obvious ties to Obamacare.
"But Germany, which provided universal health care, began to view Germans with conditions like cerebral palsy as primarily a drain on health resources that could be allocated to healthier Germans. Beck choked up as he held a Nazi poster that featured a man with cerebral palsy and said it costs 60,000 Marks to keep him alive. Another poster said that the resources spent for one year on a mental institution could have built homes for Germans.
"What happened in Germany was that they could not afford health-care for all," warns Beck."
No wonder he's under fire.
Want to know why he's so passionate about the disabled? He has a daughter with Cerebral Palsy who is a college graduate.
God bless you, Glenn!

Read the entire story here at Life Site News.

Senator Kennedy dies of brain cancer

I believe it is entirely appropriate that the day before St Monica's feast day, that Senator Edward Kennedy has gone to meet his Maker. Mother Rose Kennedy was a devout Catholic and no doubt spent many an hour before the Lord praying for a son who had, like St Augustine of Hippo, lost his way. If Ed Kennedy had confessed his sin of supporting abortion when he reformed from his alcoholism after the William Kennedy Smith rape trial, he could easily have become another St Augustine, who went from ribald youth to bishop and doctor of the Church, thanks to St Monica's 28 years of faithful prayers and tears before Our Lord.
We don't know the state of his soul. We can only hope that he had the grace of a thorough confession before his death. I sent him an email begging him to do so.
Here's what we do know.
Few have been given the privileges of the Kennedy family; financially, socially and politically, and as we know to whom much is given, much is expected. How did Edward who has been a US Senator since his twenties, nearly 47 years use the talents given him by the Lord?
He began his career as a pro-life Senator from Massachusetts. In 1971, he affirmed that one can be a pro-life Catholic politician and a good senator in a letter written to the father of a friend of mine in which he stated, "When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception."
Somewhere, Senator Kennedy sold out to the left wing and became the most vociferous anti-life voice of the Senate, attacking excellent Supreme Court nominess Samuel Alito and John Roberts for being faithful Catholics.The Wall Street Journal has an article on how the Kennedy family abandoned their pro-life principles. He is called a 'good friend to the LBQT community'. If he was the Lion of the Senate, he had lost his roar when he abandoned his Catholic morality. Such a tragic misuse of power on the part of a fellow Catholic is maddening, and it is a a grave scandal that the Catholics in Massachusetts kept him in office.
There is however, one area in which the Senator deserves praise. His sister Rosemary Kennedy was mentally challenged, and like their sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Kennedy whose work founding Special Olympics, the Senator did much for the disability community. With Republican Senator Sam Brownback, he co-sponsored the "Prenatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act" which provides funds to educate health care professionals and parents whose children are prenatally diagnosed with children who have conditions such as Down syndrome and Spina Bifida. Such children are normally aborted at a heartbreaking rate of 90%, so this was pro-life legislation which was passed unanimously in both houses of Congress, as I described in this article in the National Catholic Register. For this I am grateful to Senator Kennedy and pray that he had the grace of a good confession before dying last night and is on his way to heaven.
Eternal Rest grant to him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him, may he and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.
Here is a very moving post from my friend whose father received the 1971 letter from Senator Kennedy.

Read the entire story at WSJ news online.

Bishop D'Arcy not letting Notre Dame Controversy Rest

"The real question posed by the situation is whether or not a Catholic university has a responsibility to give a public witness to the faith, D'Arcy states. "If not, what is the meaning of a life of faith? And how can a Catholic institution expect its students to live by faith in the difficult decisions that will confront them in a culture often opposed to the Gospel?" he wonders.

"In its decision to give its highest honor to a president who has repeatedly opposed even the smallest legal protection of the child in the womb, did Notre Dame surrender the responsibility that Pope Benedict believes Catholic universities have to give public witness to the truths revealed by God and taught by the church?" the bishop also asks."

Bishop D'Arcy will have the lead article onthis subject in this month's America magazine. Good for him for keeping this scandal from being buried in Obama's attempt to court Catholics for his Health Care Proposal.
Read the entire story at CNA.

My interview with Day Gardner of National Pro-life Radio

The show will air on NPLR today at 5p.m. and Thursday -Sunday so spread the word!

40 Days for Life begins in 1 month

Please join us for 40 Days for LIFE in Norwich, CT

This fall, from September 23rd to November 1st, the Diocese of Norwich will be uniting with over 211 other communities in 45 states and 3 countries for the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history—the international 40 Days for Life campaign. People of faith are praying that this effort will mark the beginning of the end of abortion. With 40 days of prayer, fasting and 24/7 round-the-clock vigils at abortion clinics across the nation, we are asking God to end abortion in America.

40 Days for Life is a focused life-affirming campaign that has generated measurable lifesaving results. Some cities ha ve reported as much as a 28% drop in local abortion numbers. During the last two years, the local Norwich campaign has resulted in 2 documented saved lives that we know about and countless graces for the participants. Nationally the campaign has resulted in more than 1,500 lives saved!

Important Dates:

Tuesday, September 22nd: Mass and Kick-off at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Norwich, CT starting at 6:00 P.M. All are invited to attend. Refreshments to follow 7-9 PM. Please join us and bring a friend.

The 40 days will run from September 23rd to November 1st, 2009.

Getting Involved:
The 40 Days for Life campaign is made up of three key components:

Prayer and Fasting: inviting people to join together for 40 days of fervent prayer coupled with fasting for an end to abortion

Peaceful Vigil: standing for life through a 24/7, 40 day peaceful, public witness outside Planned Parenthood, 12 Case Street, Norwich, CT

Community Outreach: taking a positive, upbeat pro-life message to every corner of our city through media, petition drives, l awn signs, and public visibility.

We need parishes to "Adopt-a-Day"

Please prayerfully consider ways two possible ways to get involved-- as an individual and as a Parish community. One of the best ways for parishes to get involved is to “Adopt- a- Day”. A church would decide to “Adopt-a-Day” and then encourage their parishioners to pledge to pray for an hour at a time, on the sidewalk, in front of Planned Parenthood at 12 Case St. in Norwich on the specified “adopted day”. The parish would have one or two people organizing this effort with sign ups at the parish level.

You can also get involved individually by pledging to pray for an hour. To do so you must log onto: www.vigilcalendar.com/norwich To “A dopt-a-Day” or for more information please contact Brian J. Daly.

*Whether you’ve done this before or not, it is imperative that you register at www.vigilcalendar.com/norwich to participate at the vigil site each time you pray in front of Planned Parenthood at 12 Case St. in Norwich.

If you have any questions or need more information, or are unable to register please contact Brian J. Daly at 860-822-1788 or BJDALY@aol.com or visit www.40daysforlife.com/norwich

We already have the following days adopted for Fall 2009!
If your church/organization is not on this list, please consider getting together with other members to Adopt-A-Day.
For information on Adopting a Day, please contact Brian Daly at
BJDALY@aol.com or 860-822-1788

From Fr Markey of the Gospel of Life Society

From Fr Markey of the Norwalk CT Chapter of the Gospel of Life Society
There is a heated discussion going on in our country right now about President Obama’s proposed health care reform, H.R. 3200. From what I see in the media, much of the discussion revolves around the philosophical question of how large of a role do we want the government to have in our nation’s health care system.
How does the Catholic Church weigh in on this proposed reform? The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops has been advocating for comprehensive health care reform in our country for decades. Rather than the question of how much government involvement there should be in health care, the bishops recommend four principles:
respect for human life,
universal access for all,
pluralism and
equitable costs.
Considering the long history of the Catholic hospitals, and that today nearly one out of every five patients in the United States who is in a hospital is in a Catholic health care network, the Catholic Church’s opinion carries a great deal of weight in this discussion.
This past week Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York was asked how the bishops approach the health care reform question. He was quoted as answering: “Health care reform is a good thing. (However, if it) leads to the destruction of life, then we say it’s no longer health care at all - it’s unhealthy care and we can’t be part of that.”
According to the bishops, the current bill is seriously deficient with regards to the conscience rights of health-care providers, whether there is a mandate to finance and provide abortion, and whether seniors will be forced to forgo treatment, leading to euthanasia. Archbishop Dolan explained that the first thing that needs to be said is that “every health care system exists only to serve human life, not the other way around.”
“Human life is not some commodity, some customer, some cog that is at the service of a bigger system or some bureaucratic network,” but rather, it is “the end in itself and health care is how it is protected." If health care begins to lead to the “destruction of human life” through avenues such as abortion, end of life care, or the discarding human embryos, then “we say it’s no longer health care at all.”
Considering the fact that our current president is the strongest advocate for abortion rights of any president that we have ever had in our nation’s history, the philosophical discussion of how large a role we want the government to have in our nation’s health care system will have to wait until we can insure that human life, from the moment of conception to natural death, is truly protected in this new reform.
Sincerely in Christ,Fr. Greg J. Markeym Pastor
frmarkey@hisnet.org
St. Mary Church
669 West Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06850
www.stmarynorwalk.net

"Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks the truth!
One without the other becomes a destructive lie."
- Pope John Paul II

Largest Prolife Coalition ever assembled opposes Obamacare

I'm going to be on National Pro-life Radio

I will be discussing my work with KIDS Keep Infants with Down Syndrome with Day Garder of the Daily Life News show. You can listen to National Prolife Radio on their website.
The program will be aired several times, beginning on Tuesday August 25 at 5PM.

Pope Benedict offers condolences to the Shriver/Kennedy familes

We are not alone in our admiration of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Here are the words of His Holiness:
"It is the Holy Father’s fervent prayer that the good Lord, Who is never outdone in generosity, will grant this woman of ardent faith and generous public service the reward of her many labors, particularly on behalf of those who are physically and mentally challenged, and that, as a Family, you will help comfort one another with the assurance of your faith in Christ Jesus, our Hope."
Read the entire story at the NC Register blog.

Conservatives Rising in numbers: Gallup Poll

Despite, or perhaps because of the disarray in the GOP, conservatism is on the rise in all 50 states, yes, even in Massachusetts.

Maybe we are getting the message out, fellow bloggers!
"the fact that conservatives outnumbered liberals across the country appears to support recent evidence that America is becoming increasingly conservative.
According to a set of Gallup polls done from January to May of 2009, 40% of people polled nationwide identified themselves as conservative, compared with only 21% as liberal.
"This represents a slight increase for conservatism in the U.S. since 2008, returning it to a level last seen in 2004," writes Lydia Saad concerning the nationwide poll."
Read the entire article on Life Site News.

Bishop Vasa says "NO" to Obmacare

Tragically, just as Catholics who support the Church's teaching on life issues had to stand firm in their beliefs against pro-abortion Obama last election, often against their clergy, they are feeling very lonely in the fight against Obamacare.
But we have champions; brave individual bishops like Bishop Vasa who says, "Without these changes (and significant changes in other medical, moral and conscience issues) the health care bill is fatally flawed and as such cannot be supported," said the bishop.
Several Catholic organizations, including the Catholic Health Association and Catholic Charities USA, have joined the push for "health care reform" in the abstract, while remaining silent on the troubling aspects of the current legislation sponsored by the Obama administration. Although the groups have responded with statements vowing not to support abortion-promoting legislation per se, none have backed down from their original July statement calling upon legislators to enact health care reform "immediately."

Sr Carol Keehan said repeatedly to Raymond Arroyo on this Friday's "The World Over" that we have to work with the Obama Administration. Not if they hold all the cards and are so vehemently pro-abortion! Ove 50 million Americans have lost their lives to abortion; no liberal can tell me that supporting this terrible health care legisation will save more lives than that.

Read the entire article at Life Site News.

USCCB has new health care reform website

Take a look at it here and ask yourself where Catholic Charities, St Vincent de Paul and Catholic Health Association find their rationale to join forces with Obamacare. Raymond Arroyo on Friday's "The World Over" asked CHA's CEO Sr Carol Keehan how her org could be at cross purposes with the bishops.

The Clarity of Truth

I have noticed that the closer a soul is to God, the clearer and more powerful their words are, cutting through the thick rhetoric of those whose goal is to confuse and deceive. Those who work for the enemy.
The nation saw such astonishing clarity in the words of Sarah Palin regarding the 'death panels' of Obamacare, and in the White House's swift response to her penetrating words, as noted by Gateway Pundit. From her Facebook posting:
" The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama’s key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I’m speaking of the “Complete Lives System” advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president’s chief of staff. President Obama has not yet stated any opposition to the “Complete Lives System,” a system which, if enacted, would refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential. [1] Why the silence from the president on this aspect of his nationalization of health care? Does he agree with the “Complete Lives System”? If not, then why is Dr. Emanuel his policy advisor? What is he advising the president on? I just learned that Dr. Emanuel is now distancing himself from his own work and claiming that his “thinking has evolved” on the question of rationing care to benefit the strong and deny the weak. [2] How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed to the public at large."
Revealed by your outspoken defense of human life, Sarah. God bless you! You are a modern day Judith, defending our nation from self-destruction.

I also saw such clarity in the prophetic words of Pope John Paul II in his comments made in 1994 at the death of pro-life French geneticist Dr Jerome Lejeune, quoted from his biography, "Life is a Blessing".

"He became one of the ardent defenders of life, especially of the life of preborn children, which, in our contemporary civilisation, is often endangers to such an extent that one could think the danger to be by design. Today,this danger extends equally to elderly and sick persons. Human tribunals and democratically elected parliaments usurp the right to determine who has the right to life, and conversely, who could find that this right has been denied him through no fault of his own. In different ways, our century has experimented with such an attitude, above all during the Second World War, yet also after the end of the war."

By all means, do your own analysis of the clarity of truth when you watch the re-run of Fridays August 14 edition of "The World Over" on EWTN. Raymond Arroyo and Judie Brown of American Life League asked direct questions to Catholic Health Association CEO Sr Carol Keehan and she equivocates time after time using amorphorous campaign-style phrases about 'cooperation'.
Her organization is on board with the Obama health care plan, along with Catholic Charities and St Vincent de Paul. Where is the moral clarity in these organizations? Giving free reign to the likes of Zeke Emmanuel to condemn the elderly and disabled to death is NOT Catholic. How is that going to help the poor? So many of the poor are elderly and disabled, is the plan to eliminate the problem?
That is what the Nazi's "Final Solution" was. The T4 program was a plan to eliminate "useless eaters", the disabled, whom Hitler pried away from their families for the good of the state, then sent to the showers, brining back their clothing and gold teeth.
Seek those who speak the truth with boldness and clarity, and reveal the lies of the equivocators. If you share a Church with them, repeat the truth to them until they listen. It's an act of charity to correct those in error.
Go Sarah, speak the truth to power, we, the people are behind you!
Pope John Paul the Great, pray for us!
Servant of God, Dr Jerome Lejeune, pray for us!

Catholic agencies sell out to Obamacare

Michelle Malkin gets it too

She quotes people who are fighting for the live of their loved ones under Britain's socialized medicine. This is our future if Obamacare is passed.
Here is a Scottish mother:
“I was told that my daughter had Down’s when I was about 12 weeks pregnant and every doctor, gynaecologist I saw tried to convince me a termination was the best option. I was still offered this at 26 weeks! One reason given to me by a cold-hearted consultant was that ‘these babies put a strain on the NHS’. (National Health System)
Read her blog here.

When it really costs us to be Catholic: Belmont Abbey College

The President of Belmont Abbey College has done a fantastic job of recovering the college's Catholic identity. Enter in the anti-Catholic bigots, who have decreed that Belmont Abbey must cover something the Catholic Church has forbidden in it's employee health care plan.
Birth control.
Would a Muslim or Jewish University be forced to serve pork?
No, however, its always open season on authentically Catholic institutions.
Take heart, Belmont Abbey, it means you are serving God well when the devil takes an interest in you.
Here's a column in the Wall Street Journal by Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society. The EEOC ruled that contraceptives were mandated by a law covering pregnancy discrimination. Say what?! Reilly explains.
"The difference, however, between the EEOC's guidance and the North Carolina law is that the latter exempts religious employers such as a Catholic college, whereas the commission fails to consider that the tenets of a faith may preclude an institution from offering such benefits.
And that's the rub: Increasingly it is clear to Catholics and other religious groups that without very clear exemptions for religious employers—and conscience protections for individual doctors, nurses, pharmacists—federal health-care laws and guidelines could severely restrict religious freedom in the U.S."

Condensed version of healthcare bill

Subject: A few highlights from the first 500 pages of the Healthcare bill in congress
Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.
Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.
Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
Page 167: Any individual who doesn?t' have acceptable healthcare
(according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes
(Americans will pay for them).
Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.
Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected."
Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)
Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc.
Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.
Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.
Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN.
Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.
Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

Hard Evidence that Obmacare will be the ONLY health care option

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The truth about abortion coverage in Obamacare slips out

Somebody didn't read her talking points. California Congresswomen Logren admitted that Obamacare covers abortion. And she's happy it does. Seems that the constituents of her Town Hall weren't convinced.
"We know that over 90 percent of abortions are purely elective, not medically necessary. Why is this being covered when abortion is not clearly health care," Ignacio Reyes, a local pro-life advocate, asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cali.) at a San Jose town-hall meeting.
As the applause for Reyes subsided, Lofgren, who represents California's 16th Congressional District, responded that the proposed Congressional reforms included "a basic benefit plan developed by health professionals."
"Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the healthcare plans available to Americans, and I think it should be," said Logren, eliciting jeers and protests from the crowd".
OOps, wasn't abortion coverage a fiction created by Family Research Council and perpetuated by Sarah Palin? You mean it's REALLY in Obamacare, Rep Lofgren?

Wait till she gets a call from Nancy Pelosi. She's in trou-ble!.
Read the entire story at Life Site News.

RIP Eunice Kennedy Shriver, pro-life till the end

Dear Best Buddies Family,

It is with a somber heart that I write to share with you that my beloved Mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away today Tuesday, August 11.

She now has entered God's magnificent embrace in the same manner that she lived: at peace, surrounded by those who loved her.

Accordingly, my Mother's efforts on behalf of individuals with intellectual disabilities – particularly her work with Special Olympics – inspired me to similarly devote my life to this shared mission. Through her unwavering faith in their abilities, she helped me – and countless others – to appreciate the fact that everyone is capable of something exceptional; especially with the support and encouragement of friends and family. Through her exemplary endeavors, I learned that this support network is one of the most valuable assets anyone can and should have, regardless of one's abilities or disabilities.

My Mother's lifelong commitment to people with intellectual disabilities also taught me that there is no greater joy than the satisfaction of contributing one's time and energy to the enhancement of another person's life. The act of giving is the most rewarding manner by which to conduct each of our lives. Indeed, I know that my Mother continuously experienced such joy throughout her life.

With my Mother's passing, the Best Buddies family has lost one of its most magnanimous supporters and advocates. I know that like me, many of you will miss her smile, her words of encouragement, and simply her wonderful presence. Yet, I am comforted that her indelible spirit will always be with us, guiding us in our efforts to complete her vision for persons with intellectual disabilities ... for she knew that her fight for equality was far from completed.

On her behalf, and as we convey our last farewell, my family and I express our profound gratitude for your shared commitment to that collective dream. We would be honored if you would take some time to learn more about her life, share your own remembrances about her, and read those of others at www.eunicekennedyshriver.org. I hope that you will not only read and perhaps contribute to the site, but also share it with your friends and family.

In lieu of flowers, and your sentiments indeed are forever appreciated, please consider making a donation in my Mother's name to an organization dedicated to the individuals she so lovingly devoted her life to, such as either Best Buddies (www.bestbuddies.org) or Special Olympics (www.specialolympics.org), in order to help ensure that her inspiring legacy will live on in our mission of friendship.

Respectfully,

Anthony K. Shriver
Founder and Chairman
Best Buddies International

Here's a moving tribute to Eunice from both the Knights of Columbus and the Susan B Anthony List on Catholic Key Blog.

This photos is of future Special Olympians who who help carry on Eunice's legacy of opportunities for all God's children to participate in the blessings of life.

Feminists for Life mourns the loss of Eunice Kennedy Shriver

A Remarkable Pro-Life Woman®

Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum founder Carol Crossed introduced FFL President Serrin M. Foster to Ms. Shriver at a pro-life dinner in 1994. "Ms. Shriver asked me to help organize an event in her home honoring Mary Cunningham Agee of the Nurturing Network. I was happy to help host an event for an organization focused on serving pregnant women in college and in the workplace."
Foster remembers meeting with Sargent and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, together with then-intern coordinator Elise Ehrhard, when Feminists for Life opened the Washington office. "We were taking on too many things, especially for an office with one staff member. They encouraged us to do one thing and do it well, as they had done, serving the mentally challenged by founding the Special Olympics." Foster and the FFL Board took the Shrivers’ strategic and thoughtful guidance to heart, and the College Outreach Program soon became FFL's flagship program.
When The American Feminist® first named Eunice Kennedy Shriver a Remarkable Pro-Life Woman,® Foster recalls, "her husband phoned the office and asked us to send over a stack of copies for his family and friends. He was delighted that we recognized her in this meaningful way." (Please see the article honoring Ms. Shriver below.)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a lifelong pro-life Democrat, was the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Senator Edward Kennedy. Her husband, who survives her, was former U.S. Ambassador to France and Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Sargent Shriver. They have five children (Robert, California First Lady Maria, Timothy, Mark, and Anthony) and twenty-one grandchildren.
The board and staff of Feminists for Life extends their heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Her legacy will live on in our work and especially in the work of Special Olympics.
The text from the original article honoring her follows.
* * *
WHEN EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor in 1984, then- President Ronald Reagan declared, "With enormous conviction and unrelenting effort, Eunice Kennedy Shriver has labored on behalf of America’s least powerful, those with mental retardation …. Her decency and goodness have touched the lives of many." Shriver, a longtime supporter of Feminists for Life of America, has demonstrated a lifelong concern for the "least powerful." The founder of Special Olympics International and executive vice president of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, Shriver supports organizations that work on behalf of women and children, born and unborn.
Under Shriver’s leadership, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development was established in 1962, and major centers for the study of medical ethics were developed at Harvard and Georgetown Universities.
When she founded Special Olympics International in 1968, 1,000 women and men with mental retardation from 26 states and Canada took part. Today, more than 1 million Special Olympics athletes participate.
As executive vice president of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, Shriver continues to support solution-oriented programs to eradicate discrimination and problems faced by the disenfranchised. The Kennedy Foundation says its mission "is to provide leadership in the field of mental retardation and services to persons with mental retardation, both those born and unborn, and their families."
Shriver, recognizing the high rate of mental retardation among children born to teen-age mothers, led the foundation’s efforts to develop an innovative program to address the causes of problems facing teen-age women and their children. Called Community of Caring, the program focuses on "health and nutrition for the pregnant teen, preparation for childbirth, development of parental skills, and the importance of continuing in school and avoiding risk-taking behavior." Parents and community volunteers act as a mentoring network for teen-age mothers. Since its inception in 1986, more than 350 schools have adopted the Community of Caring program.

Eunice, now that you are with both your mother Rose, and your sister Rosemarie in the presence of Our Lord, aren't you proud that you never abandoned the unborn? We will miss you.

Pray for your brother Edward as he prepares to meet the the Just Judge.

With Mike Sola; special needs families are no longer 'Sola'

"Sola" meaning alone in Spanish. Special needs family have found a champion against discriminatory Obamacare.
Sola stood up to Michigan Rep Dingell at a Town Hall meeting, saying that he spoke for his son with Cerebral Palsy who would be denied coverage under Obamacare. Now he is facing death threats from Obama supporters according to a Ron Paul supporter blog.
He was just interviewed on Fox News and spoke eloquently about his exchange with Rep Dingell who assured Sola that there was "an amendment" to cover the handicapped in the healthcare bill. Yet, when Sola challenged Dingell to 'name' the amendment number, he couldn't. Sola told Fox that if the healthcare plan was so wonderful, why would there have to be an amendment to give handicapped people coverage.
Mike Sola, you represent my daughter with Down syndrome better than the so-called Down syndrome organizations NDSS and NDSC who have not come out against this bill. Like the AARP who is in the tank for Obama, they too have forgotten whom they serve.

UN Treaty on Disabled free of pro-abortion language; for now

Thanks to the valiant efforts of pro-lifers, like our friends Piero Tozzi and Austin Ruse at C-FAM, there is no language stating that abortion is a right of the disable, in fact the UN Treaty on the Disabled says the opposite.
"Take the Disabilities Convention. The term was debated extensively, and it was clear throughout negotiations that "sexual and reproductive health" did not include abortion. This was recognized repeatedly by the Chairman, who said that no new rights -- and specifically no right to abortion -- were created. Indeed, the official report of the proceedings stated that "this phrase was not intended to alter or prejudice the general policies of governments," thus acknowledging that countries are free to keep their laws protecting the unborn in place.
At least 15 nations made statements that the phrase did not create a right to abortion. The US in its closing statement affirmed that the term "cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion."
But we must remain vigilant, as there are many UN committees with anti-life agendas.
Read the entire article at MercatorNet.

Sarah Palin says Obamacare is "downright evil"

As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!
The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."
Spoken with conviction. As the mother of a child with Down syndrome and an elderly mother with advanced cancer, I have the same gut fear that Obamacare would kill them both.
And I too say hell no!
Read her entire statement on her Facebook page.

Catholics who support Obamacare

This is a shocking revelation; St Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Charities and Catholic Health Association are actively supporting pro-death Obamacare. Catholics once again find themselves fighting amongst themselves over fundamental understanding of life principles, which obscures our message to the world. The enemy must be rubbing his hands in glee at this scandalous situation. The bishops must act NOW to clarify that Catholics stand for helping the poor, but never at the expense of innocent human life. We must be careful of being bought by the Obama Administration. Katie Walker of American Life League notes that right after Catholic Charities came out in support of Obamacare, they were awarded a federal grant of $100 million for disaster relief. "The Department of Health and Human Services awarded the contract to Catholic Charities for disaster relief services over a five-year period.The announcement comes just three days after the organization became embroiled in an ongoing scandal for its campaign in support of the Obama administration's goal of "health care reform now." Current legislation includes tax-subsidized abortion and rationed care for the sick and elderly."
from Life Site News:
"A clash between Catholic pro-life groups and major Catholic organizations on whether Congress should enact immediate health care reform has drastically muddled the Catholic response to the debate raging on Capitol Hill. But as one Catholic editor has noted, the conflicting messages on whether to push the Obama administration's health care reform could be traced to at least one organization's monetary interest in such reform.
The struggle came to a head last week with news of an "action alert" released by Catholic Charities USA, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Catholic Health Association (CHA) calling on constituents to contact Congressmen urging the passage of health care reform "now."
Noting that the Obama-sponsored legislation is underway, the group wrote only that there are many "details" in the bills that "still need to be developed" and that nonetheless "we must maintain momentum for health care reform efforts with calls and emails supporting health care reform immediately."
Pro-life leaders are vigorously fighting the bills which, as confirmed by an Associated Press report, would now explicitly expand abortion. The groups denied that they intended to support the current legislation, but were merely fighting the general "pressure to keep the status quo" in the American health care system.
If so, pro-life Catholics questioned, why did the groups step up the pressure at the very same moment President Obama was attempting to ram the troublesome bill through Congress?
Jack Smith, editor of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocesan newspaper The Catholic Key, says part of the problem lies in "confusion over the nature of the Catholic Health Association and [CHA president] Sister Carol [Keehan]'s role."
The Catholic Health Association, he explains, is actually a for-profit trade association, unlike other Catholic entities driven solely by altrustic goals.
The Catholic Key reported on Aug. 6 that Sister Carol's "compensation at Catholic Health Association is $856,093. This in an organization whose expenses are only $17,660,797. Three other employees at CHA each make more than $300,000."
"CHA is not a repository of Catholic social teaching with regard to health care or an association of moral theologians or a charity in service of the poor," wrote Smith. "It is a trade association."
SO, Catholic Health Association is not Catholic. Then why haven't the USCCB revoked the name "Catholic" from their title? Why do the Daughters of Charity, founded by Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, permit Sr Keehan to work for an organization which is fighting to implement a health care plan which opposes the Holy Father's latest encyclical, "Caritatis in Veritate".
"Openness to life is at the centre of true development. When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man's true good. If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away."


Read the entire story at Life Site News and American Life League.

Fr Mitch Pacwa and Obama; both students of Saul Alinsky?

"I recognize the community organizer approach that Townsend commends in this piece. I learned Sol Alinsky style of community organizing as a novice in Chicago when President Obama was a little boy living in Jakarta, Indonesia. Mr. Tom Gaudette, an associate of Sol Alinsky, trained a number of us Jesuits. I was the youngest man in the group, and I was certainly not well developed in the practice of organizing, but I tried my best in COUP - the acronym for Community of United People - on Chicago's near West Side."
Here is where Obama and the Catholic Church have their meeting place; helping the poor. Here is where they separate; lack of respect for human sexuality and human life.

Read Alinsky's Rules for Radicals here. Read Kathleen Kennedy Townsend's Newsweek article.

Read the entire story on the Ignatius Insight Blog.

Archbishop Dolan on Obamacare and human life

The Archbishop of New York explained that the first thing that needs to be said is that “every health care system exists only to serve human life, not the other way around.”
“Human life is not some commodity, some customer, some cog that is at the service of a bigger system or some bureaucratic network,” but rather, it is “the end in itself and health care is how it is protected. Hear that, Peter Singer!
"If health care begins to lead to the “destruction of human life” through avenues such as abortion, end of life care, or the discarding human embryos, then “we say it’s no longer health care at all. “It’s unhealthy care and we can’t be part of that,” Archbishop Dolan stated.

Perfectly said from a true shepherd of souls; Cardinal O'Connor, you have found us a man after your own heart!

Read the entire story at CNS.